A visit to Parc Slip

With a chance in weather, it was definitely worth a visit to Parc Slip WTSWW. It’s somewhere that is absolutely fantastic for wildlife, yet somewhere we have not managed to visit all that much – this will change!

With the warm weather, there was plenty of wildlife to see as with spring now in bloom – the air was full of singing birds and buzzing bees! It was great to see a couple of Brimstone butterflies around the reserve with Small Tortoiseshell also seen. The biggest delight was seeing our first Glow Worms of the year, I’ve only seen a few of these in the Forest of Dean, so it was great to see some closer to home – these were nestled among the foliage around the hides but during the evening they will glow and put on a show! Lapwing were also seen around the wader scrapes along with many, many groups of Skylarks, Meadow Pipis and it was great to see pairs of Buzzards and Red Kites drifting in the sky.

Continuing our walk around, we headed towards the back of the wader scrape along the Plover Trail before stopping to look around the ferns and brambles. It was a very warm day and definitely the hottest day of this year so we were hoping for some adders! We first sighted some Common Lizards, we then noticed a piece of felting on the group which looked to have come off a hide as there was nothing similar nearby – we gently lifted this with a stick was absolutely amazed to see a Water Shrew staring back at us!! It then quickly scampered away into the foliage. Our final walk around the bracken luckily paid off as we sighted our first Adder of the year! Definitely a creature I wish to see more of and one that I wish people would appreciate more. Overall, it was an enjoyable day and a site with so much potential and wildlife – we’ll definitely be back to explore more and see what other wildlife we can find!

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